Hippo With Tortoise

Status: True
image This is a slightly old story, but very heartwarming. A baby hippo in Nairobi that survived the tsunami has apparently adopted a tortoise as its surrogate mother:

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP. "After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

As far as I can tell, this story is completely true. But the real reason I'm posting about it is because I think it might provide me with a great title for my next book: Hippo Eats Tortoise. Kinda catchy, don't you think?

Animals

Posted on Wed Nov 09, 2005


Comments

I think hippos are now our official mascot.
Posted by Citizen Premier  on  Thu Nov 10, 2005  at  04:32 AM
I've thought about having a mascot for the site before. One of the obvious choices would have been a jackalope. Another possibility was a vegetable lamb. (see the image... it's a lamb that, according to medieval legend, grows from a plant.) I even came up with a latin motto to accompany the vegetable lamb: Lana ab oculis liberetur (let the wool be lifted from the eyes). But maybe a hippo would work also. Maybe a hippo eating a vegetable lamb!
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Thu Nov 10, 2005  at  09:13 AM
Damnit, I saw this shortly after the tsunami on BBC. If only I'd posted it then. 😉

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4152447.stm
Posted by Charybdis  on  Thu Nov 10, 2005  at  09:35 AM
Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/hippo.asp

There's another picture there, too.
Posted by Joe  on  Thu Nov 10, 2005  at  02:30 PM
Awwwww, that's such a sweet story!

I don't see anything about the hippo EATING his buddy, though, Alex. So the book would have to be something like "Hippo Loves Tortoise." Not a bad idea. After your two books about real hoaxes, you could do one on stories that sound like hoaxes, but aren't.
Posted by Big Gary in Tierra del Fuego  on  Fri Nov 11, 2005  at  04:29 PM
my little sister said they should make this in to a disney movie. :lol:
Posted by Nightmare  on  Sat Nov 12, 2005  at  08:09 AM
I think hippos are vegetarians so they would not want to eat turtle soup anyway.
Posted by Me Man  on  Sun Jan 15, 2006  at  10:25 PM
I got a mascot. Jackalope fighting a hippo over a vegetable lamb.

This isnt that dubious.
Posted by J  on  Mon Oct 02, 2006  at  10:48 AM
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